3,425 stories on BoxingScene are published under the Cliff Rold byline.
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Last week, the focus was on the Super Six Super Middleweight tournament. This week, the focus will be on the division the winner of that tournament is likely to find themselves in sooner than later.
By Cliff Rold - After the first round of the tournament, this was probably the odds-on favorite to be the final. Former IBF 160 lb. beltholder Arthur Abraham looked as advertised with a 12th round, one-punch atomizing of former World Middleweight Champion Jermain Taylor. 2004 U.S. Olympic Light Heavyweight Gold Medalist Andre Ward was masterful in outboxing, and outbrawling, former unified Super Middleweight titlist Mikkel Kessler. That was back in the Fall of 2009. Remember? Back when the “Super Six” Super Middleweight tournament still had just six fighters? Yeah. Then. Things have changed a wee bit since. Taylor left the field after the first round. Kessler and 2004 U.S. Olympic Middleweight Bronze Medalist Andre Dirrell were out before the third and final preliminary round commenced. Allan Green and Glen Johnson ultimately entered the field officially. Sakio Bika was the unofficial ninth. Now, finally, four remain. After the first round, Abraham was still undefeated. Ward was too.
by Cliff Rold - Three or so years ago, it would still have been a main event. It might even have been at the very Chumash Casino it will be taking place in this Friday night. If not, then maybe the Home Depot Center, Pechanga, or Seminole Hard Rock. For sure, the venue could have been the same. The broadcast outlet? That might have been a little different. In 2007, now 31-year old Julio Diaz was still in the midst of his second run as IBF Lightweight titlist. Still just 29 today, former WBO Jr. Welterweight titlist Kendall Holt (26-4, 14 KO) came up just short that same year in his first crack at that belt, controversially stopped by big punching Ricardo Torres on the road. Holt would seize the belt in a 2008 corker, coming off the floor twice to score a brutal knockout, all in just one minute plus a second. In 2007 or 2008, it’s easy to imagine a Diaz-Holt showdown headlining, or at least chief supporting, on Showtime or HBO. Friday night, Holt and Diaz will lock horns in the main event on ESPN2’s Friday Night Fights. It’s no knock on ESPN2. They’ve managed a ream of good fights over the last couple years with less budget than HBO or Showtime have. However, those quality matches often signal one of two things: fighters potentially on the rise or fighters resisting the slide. In recent years, fans have seen the progress arc of the sensational Yuriorkis Gamboa on one hand, and a career saving win for former Jr. Middleweight titlist Roman Karmazin, just to cite a couple memorable moments. This Friday, we have a couple Karmazin’s on our hands. It’s a fine matchmaking choice for the premium cable outlet and, better for the fans, an opportunity likely fused with a hint of desperation for both men. Time has moved on since the best of days for Holt and Diaz. Neither ever quite achieved the level of superstardom their talents initially indicated possible. Neither has any reason to hang their head despite it. They have achieved much in their tenures, been honest pros at the elite level of the game, and clearly aren’t yet at the finish line. This is the best kind of veteran non-title match-up, a chance to see two men just enough past it to ensure landing leather, and still good enough to show off the all the tricks, all the savvy, their combined 20-plus years as paid pugilists have imparted.
On paper it didn’t look like a meaningful fight. In the ring, it didn’t look like one either. The Manny Pacquiao express moves on, Shane Mosley should retire, and Jorge Arce rocked it. Any questions?
by Cliff Rold - On March 12, 2005, Manny Pacquiao experienced something for the first and only time since the calendar ventured into the 2000’s. He lost. It wasn’t a bad loss. The victor that night, Erik Morales, was and remains a bona fide Hall of Famer who turned in an incredible performance. With titles in three weight classes, Pacquiao was already the first man in history to officially win the lineal Flyweight and Featherweight titles (it reads officially because it is a feat better scoring could have conveyed to Fighting Harada decades earlier). The Morales loss wasn’t going to keep Pacquiao from Hall of Fame accolades. He’d proven a great enough fighter already to likely secure such honors. Pacquiao has moved well beyond ‘great enough’ since. In thirteen fights since the Morales loss, Pacquiao has won every time, eight times by stoppage.
As far as weekends meant to keep time go, boxing could have done worse. With the spotlight turned, at the championship level, on the lowest weight divisions, boxing got healthy action at Jr. Flyweight and a hint at Strawweight as well, made more intriguing by the family affair it represented.
Manny Pacquiao might not be the most famous athlete in the world right now. He’s not far off. The U.S. is sometimes slow to embrace foreign-born fighters but when they do, the love affair is usually full blown. Roberto Duran and Julio Cesar Chavez experienced it.
By Cliff Rold - It took too long but, after an awkward stretch where the aging didn’t seem interested in acting their part, a youth movement appears afoot in boxing. The sport needs it. Young fighters have a way of doing something older, wiser fighters sometimes forget to do. They fight. Still with a chip on their shoulder, still working towards riches, matches of quality fighters whose physical peaks and mental acuity are near congruent have often been special. Just a couple of weeks ago, fight fans were reminded as Victor Ortiz and Andre Berto took turns swinging for the gates and putting each other on the deck. A couple weeks before that, Flyweights Luis Concepcion and Hernan Marquez beat the hell out of each other and God bless them for it. That doesn’t mean the vets don’t have their place. Erik Morales showed Marcos Maidana he wasn’t ready for the rocking chair just yet. Juan Manuel Marquez might just snare his dream third match with Manny Pacquiao, still reigning as the Lightweight king. And when the smoke clears from next week’s big event, arguably the two most intriguing matches over the next four weeks in boxing will feature men closer to 50 than they are to thirty. On May 21st, the great Bernard Hopkins (51-5-2, 32 KO) will challenge Light Heavyweight champion Jean Pascal (26-1-1, 16 KO) for the second fight in a row.
It’s the calm before the… …sorry. Can’t go there. Storm just doesn’t cut it when describing the fight on May 7. Maybe, and a soft maybe at that, Manny Pacquiao-Shane Mosley turns into a memorable classic. Chances are, it’s a one sided affair that lives down to the expectations of fight fans who know more names than just “Manny.”
Cut stoppages stink, especially when they halt a serious fight in the right sense of the word. However, the boos that follow such stops vary. If they come too early, or deny a rallying fighter his chance to make a miracle happen, the boos can rain well past the official announcement of the decision.